“I think I heard something about his having
been sent to Coventry at the Military Academy.”

“But, Mr. Darrin, you are not going to fail
us just because the Army loses a worthy player or
two?” exclaimed Lieutenant-Commander Parker
in astonishment.

“Probably that isn’t what ails me, sir,”
Dave answered flushing. “After all, sir,
probably I’m just beginning to go stale.
If I can’t shake it off no doubt I had better
be retired from the Navy eleven.”

“Don’t you believe it!” almost shouted
coach. “Mr. Darrin, you will simply have
to brace! Give us all the best that’s in
you, and don’t for one instant allow any personal
disappointments to unfit you. You’ll do
that, won’t you?”

“Yes, sir.”

Darrin certainly tried hard enough. Yet just
as certainly the Navy’s boosters shook their
heads when they watched Darrin’s work on the
field.

“He has gone stale,” they said.
“The very worst thing that could happen to the
Navy this year!”

Then came the first game of the season—–­with
Lehigh. Darrin roused himself all he could,
and his playing was very nearly up to what might have
been expected of him—–­though not quite.

The visitors got away with a score of eight to five
against the Navy.

Next week the Lehighs went to West Point and suffered
defeat at the hands of the Army.

The news sent gloom broadcast through the Naval Academy.

“We get beaten by one of the smaller colleges,
that West Point can trim,” was the mournful
comment.

It did, indeed, look bad for the Navy!

CHAPTER V

DAN HANDS HIMSELF BAD MONEY

As the season went on it was evident that Dave Darrin
was slowly getting back to form.

Yet coach was not wholly satisfied, nor was anyone
else who had the triumph of the Navy eleven at heart.

Three more games had been played, and two of them
were won by the Navy. Next would come Stanford
College, a hard lot to beat. The Navy tried to
bolster up its own hopes; a loss to Stanford would
mean the majority of games lost out of the first five.

True, the news from West Point was not wholly disconcerting
to the Navy. The Army that year had some strong
players, it was true; still, the loss of Prescott
and Holmes was sorely felt. Word came, too, in
indirect ways, that there was no likelihood whatever
that the Coventry against Cadet Dick Prescott would
be lifted. It was the evident purpose of the
Corps of Cadets, for fancied wrongs, to ostracize
Dick Prescott until he found himself forced to resign
from the United States Military Academy.

November came in. Stanford came. Coach
talked to Dave Darrin steadily for ten minutes before
the Navy eleven trotted out on to the field.
Stanford left Annapolis with small end of the score,
in a six-to-two game, and the Navy was jubilant.